Codeweavers, the manufacturers of Crossover, the Wine-based runtime environment, have announced version 6.2 of their software for Linux and Mac OS X, and given users a sneak preview of new and improved functions.

According to the vendor, Crossover 6.2 will include improved support for Outlook 2003 in combination with the Crossover HTML machine. According to Codeweavers boss Jon Parshall this will mean "dramatic improvements for Outlook 2003 users".

Besides further improvements to support for Windows applications, users of the Mac version of Crossover 6.2 will benefit from improved Dock integration which is said to be very close to a native implementation of OS X applications. As an example for another new feature in Crossover 6.2 Parshall refers to support for messaging symbols, for example graphical notification for incoming mail to Outlook. Improved graphics and sound will benefit gamers.

Crossover is based on the Wine project, to which vendor Codeweavers actively contributes. Wine is an Open Source software that systematically provides Windows application programming interface (Win32 API) functionality on Unix. This gives users the ability to run Windows programs on Unix-based systems such as Mac OS X or Linux without having to install Windows on their machines.

Codeweavers offers the software commercially with various extras such as support and update service. The update service for six months costs about US$ 40 in the vendor's online shop; prices will not be changing with the new version. Crossover 6.2 will be available to users with a valid support contract for downloading as of September 25, 2007. Codeweavers is looking to release version 7.0 before MacWorld in January 2008.

U.S. company Codeweavers today offers a special Google Chrome version of their CrossOver runtime environment for free download, giving Linux and Mac users the opportunity to test the search engine vendor’s new browser.